In computing, a bit is the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store. It is always in one of two physical states, similar to an on/off light switch, and the state is represented by a single binary value, usually a 0 or 1. Bits are stored in memory through the use of capacitors that hold electrical charges, and the charge determines the state of each bit, which, in turn, determines the bits value. Although a computer might be able to test and manipulate data at the bit level, most systems process and store data in bytes. A byte is a sequence of eight bits that are treated as a single unit. References to a computers memory and storage are always in terms of bytes. For example, a storage device might be able to store 1 terabyte (TB) of data, which is equal to 1,000,000 megabytes (MB). To bring this into perspective, 1 MB equals 1 million bytes, or 8 million bits.
In summary, a bit is the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store, and it is always in one of two physical states, represented by a single binary value. A byte is a sequence of eight bits that are treated as a single unit, and most systems process and store data in bytes.
